A HOUSE in Farnham has been re-possessed by Waverley Borough Council due to non-occupation and rent arrears totalling more than £10,000.

Waverley was awarded possession of the home at Southampton County Court on October 4 - concluding a two-year investigation by the council.

The court sat for two days, during which neighbours and council officers were cross examined by the defendant, who represented himself.

Waverley has since confirmed it will apply for a bailiff warrant in two weeks time so that the home can be let to someone in housing need.

With more than 1,500 people waiting for an affordable home in Waverley the council has rules to make sure that homes are rented to those who most need them. But over the past year the council has discovered 33 cases of homes being occupied fraudulently.

Waverley’s portfolio holder for housing, Carole King said: “Tenancy fraud is not a victimless crime. For every home that is fraudulently occupied there is a person or family with a genuine need being denied access to the home that they are entitled to.”

If any reader suspects that a tenant is subletting a council home, has another home or is occupying a council home that they have no right to, this could be tenancy fraud.

Report anything suspicious online at www.waver

ley.gov.uk/reportit, or sending an email to Report

[email protected] or call 01483 523586.

Benefit fraud should be reported directly to the Department of Works and Pensions online at www.gov.uk/report-benefit-fraud or by calling 0800 854 440.

• In another boost to Waverley’s social housing stock, the council has confirmed that six former police houses on the banks of the River Wey in Farnham have been let out to tenants following refurbishment.

The police station in Longbridge was demolished in late 2014 to make way for Churchill’s block of 50 retirement flats, while six three-bedroom houses to the rear of the building site were acquired by Waverley to home tenants from its social housing register.

The houses were built in the 1960s to home police officers and their families, and following a spruce up - including minor asbestos removal, new kitchens, re-painting inside and out, and a new water connection - were occupied in May.